Chinese Olympic Committee supports IOC decision on new dates

Beijing : The Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) released a statement on Tuesday to express its firm support to the International Olympic Committee's decision on the new dates for Tokyo 2020.

The IOC, together with the 32nd Olympic Games organising committee, announced on Monday that Tokyo 2020 will be staged from July 23 to August 8, 2021 as Japan and IOC earlier agreed to postpone the Games amid COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Chinese Olympic Committee supports this decision of the International Olympic Committee, and believes that the IOC and the Tokyo Olympic organising committee will well handle the relevant issues and successfully host the Tokyo 2020 Olympics," read the COC statement, reports Xinhua news agency.

It added that the COC will continue to maintain its communications with the IOC, the Tokyo 2020 organisers and each of the sports' world governing bodies, to keep analyzing, judging and properly responding to the follow-up tasks, and to actively adjust China's preparations to the revised Tokyo 2020.

"We will do our best to vie for the quota and prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, while keeping fighting against the coronavirus epidemic," said the COC.

Earlier, the International University Sports Federation (FISU) voiced its support for the revised dates for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, while conforming that the Chengdu 2021 World University Games will be held in August, 2021 as planned with only a two-day modification.

A statement released via the FISU website said the dates of Chengdu 2021, which had originally been scheduled to run from August 16-27, will be changed to August 18-29, 2021 "following a request from the local event organisers."